Translation of publicist’s post (RUS)According to the Republic of Kazakhstan’s Electronic Government, labor agreements, collective bargaining contracts and/or employers can determine an hourly wage for work completed in less than a full working day, as well as set wages for temporary work.

Everything seems clear, but how does it work? Is the money earned over a certain number of hours sufficient to cover basic living costs? In order to check how realistic it is to live on minimal wage, I decided to use my own experience working as a promoter.

Given: A promoter (me), an agency, and the client (the company that wants its product advertised). The goal: to spend a set amount of time at an agreed upon place, smile and advertise the product. There’s nothing difficult about it; in fact, it’s pretty interesting, but we’ll discuss that later.

My last campaign – let’s call it “Buy ‘Spic and Span” Detergent and Get a Free Pot” – took place in one of Almaty’s supermarkets. It lasted one month, running Friday through Sunday (theoretically, it could run every day, but that’s up to the client). Wages are agreed upon beforehand, and typically varies from 250 to 500 tenge per hour (this depends on the product, the number of days, and the agency).

My salary, at 400 tg/hour, 4 hours per day, equals 1600 tg. Thus, 15 workdays = 60 hours = 24,000 tg. I get it, so I’m standing around thinking: “What will this be enough for?” According to statistical indicators, I belong to the category of able-bodied persons over the age of 18, gender: female.

Let us try and calculate the minimum living cost of an average representative of the fair sex. For the month of October, the average female’s basket of goods cost 12,318 tg.

Perhaps, my cost of living is slightly lower because I don’t consume meat or milk, but my list includes most of the other goods, like buckwheat, potatoes, fruit and vegetables. I need them constantly. I’m curious, how much is this need costing me?

For the sake of the experiment, I set aside exactly 12,318 tenge and went out shopping. Having purchased a little bit of everything, and several kilos of apples and potatoes, I spent 3169 tenge. These are just foodstuffs. I still need washing detergent, dish washing liquid (plus sponges). I spend another 3000 tenge. On the way home, I remember that I still need to pay for my internet connection (4000 tg) and phone line (2018 tg).

I was ready to pay the balance on my cell phone, when I realized that I was left with only 131 tenge. That’s enough to take five rides on Almaty’s public transportation system – and that, using my student discount. After that, I have 6 tenge left from my monthly minimum.

I was suddenly not so happy. Additionally, it occurred to me that my mother’s birthday was only a few days away. I was fortunate enough to have another 12,000 left over from my “minimum.” I used them to purchase a 6000-tenge kitchen machine, and set aside 2000 tg for a bouquet. I also used them to pay my mobile phone bill, which my minimum was insufficient for.

I returned home perplexed, trying to decide whether getting paid by the hour is worth the significant effort exerted, if the money earned is spent so quickly. I also pondered whether it was possible to survive on the basic cost of living for even a month?

I quickly answered my own questions. Now, it’s up to you to answer yours!